Flashdance Tour

If it's going to be anything like the Footloose tour, I'll give it a wide berth.

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I didn't see it with Gareth but thought the whole production was lacklustre and miscast. The actor/musician thing didn't work either.

Starring Joanne Clifton & Ben Adams from A1!

We TheatreBoard types are notoriously quick!

No wonder she quit Strictly then! I'm quite intrigued by this, and plenty of venues fairly close to London which also helps - might use it as an excuse for a day trip to Oxford!

So caught the tour of 'Flashdance' at the matinee yesterday. Last minute decision as I had not seen the show before (don't think I have even seen the movie all the way through) and was clinched by the offer of a cheap ticket.

As a show it is certainly on a par with Fame and Flashdance with 2 dimensional characters, a few great pop songs and few forgettable songs to pad it out.

I liked Joanna Clifton in Millie and think she has enormous potential in musical theatre, with the right direction. She can sing and she certainly can dance but here I felt she was not hard enough as Alex.

The supporting cast has strong singers and dancers, particularly the male ensemble, but there was some very poor acting going on from some, particularly Gloria and her stand up comedian boyfriend.

I am glad I saw the show and wish I had seen the original with Victoria Hamilton Barritt. It will never be a great piece but entertaining enough and what's not to love about a mega-mix finale of 80's show.

I was there in the evening show! I'd love to bump into you finally.

The performance I was at was actually the press night! The show was very, very "meh". The audience were lapping it up and were extremely responsive and it was clear the cast were having a blast on stage but nothing felt particularly professional about this production. My date for the evening performed the show in Drama School and, honestly, her production was on par with this one. Everything just screamed CHEAP and BUDGET.

Firstly, Joanna Clifton. Jesus. That girl is a star in the making, I wish she'd drop the celebrity tag and just focus on becoming a bona fide leading lady because her voice and dancing are unbelievably refined. Her acting left a lot to be desired but she was doing the best with a bad script.

Ben Adams was as you'd expect. He was handsome, his acting was average and his singing sounded like a faded pop star throughout the show - constantly nasally with horrendous diction. I doubt he has a career in musical theatre past cheap shows like this one. Not that it matter because that man has aged extremely well so I'd happily just stare at him.

Apart from Joanna Clifton the only other actor on the stage who left an impression was a nurse who helped look after Alex's mentor, Hannah. She was a bit part who was on stage maybe three or four times but she had the audience in stitches every time. She was the living proof that there really aren't any small roles. Everyone else, especially Alex's friends, were complete let downs. The girls had no personality outside their great singing voices and were woefully miscast. I mean, characters aren't exactly well written anyway but there was so much comedy to be found in the dialogue and it was all wasted. Gloria was the biggest disappointment of the night - everything about her was amateur. Her acting was painfully dull, her singing was average and she rarely danced so can't comment on that.

Speaking of which the choreography came across forced and very vanilla, nothing spectacular or original and a lot of the dance numbers felt recycled. The direction was "safe" and a bit bland. The set was cheap but that's expected from Selladoor who produce shows that will distract everyone with nostalgia so that no one notices their cheap production costs.

The famous songs from the movie were great but the new additions were completely forgettable. I remember there was a song called "One In a Million" but I couldn't tell you about the rest of the numbers. Act One was full of energy and everyone seemed to be on top form. But Act Two dragged and my God, I've never seen so much filler in all my life. People's energy just seemed to die a death!

None of this particularly matters because 26 year old male performers aren't exactly their demographic. The people in the audience seemed to absolutely love the show and this was evident from the multiple standing ovations the cast got during the finale/curtain call/megamix. Flashdance is what it is. It's not a particularly good show but that's alright, not everything needs to be. It'll sell well and some middle aged woman will have a great night out when they see it.

I was going to go yesterday but even half price tickets couldn't tempt me.

The photos they're sending out for publicity almost entirely consisted of the young woman wearing hardly any clothes and under some water streams. If I wanted to see all that I'd look on the Internet...

Even West End "everything is wonderful" Wilma only gave it three stars.

So we've got two jukebox musicals currently running competing for the 'Worst Touring Musical of the Year Award', Flashdance and Son of a Preacher Man. Anyone seen both and able to give a verdict. Which is worse?

Started about 5 minutes late TallPaul.

As a show, it was just so poor. There was absolutely zero energy coming from the stage. And Flashdance should ooze energy. The music didn't sound beefy enough, the set design was dire, the lighting design was like being at a school disco, endless sound issues. No sound from the mics for the first song.

I think Joanne Clifton has a good voice in there somewhere. I could hear potential, but she sounded ropey in this. Pitchey. Lead guy also poor. General dire diction as a cast overall, couldn't hear half of what they were saying.

Most awkward moment was during I Love Rock & Roll when the four or so cast members on stage were doing the whole "clap along with me" thing...no-one clapped along.

Sadly a typical Selladoor production...cheap cheap cheap.